The next morning, you woke up to the sound of your alarm. You stared at the ceiling for a few minutes before getting up and making your bed. You headed out of the room only to find Baekhyun pouring milk into his bowl of cereals.

 

Baekhyun heard the door opened and turned around, “Good morning, lil’ sis.” He tried to sound as casual as he could.

 

Unlike your usual morning greetings, you just nodded at him in acknowledgement. You never cheerily greeted with a ‘Good morning Baek Oppa!’ and hugged him and neither did you give off a sarcastic remark.

 

Damn, I messed up big time. Baekhyun sighed and just continued to prepare his bowl of cereal.

 

“Do you want cereal too?” Your brother asked you.

 

“Nope, I’ll just have a glass of milk.” You replied, but there was no expression in your voice.

 

“Alright.” Was all Baekhyun said.

 

The two of you walked to school together in awkward silence. When you reached the school building, you immediately went to your locker to get your books for your first class. Unfortunately, you met the other two betrayers there.

 

“Good morning Rinnie!” Chanyeol happily greeted you while he ruffled your hair but you just pushed his arm away.

 

Kai and Chanyeol stared at you in shock and looked up to Baekhyun for an explanation. “I’ll explain later,” Baekhyun mouthed to his two friends.

 

“How are you today, Haerin-ah?” Kai asked.

 

“I’m fine.”

 

“How was your date with Luhan yesterday?” Chanyeol casually asked and Baekhyun stiffened.

 

“You guys stalked me yesterday, didn’t you? So tell me, how did the date look like to you?” You shut your locker with a loud slam and turned to face them.

 

Chanyeol’s and Kai’s face turned black.

 

“Haerin-ah, about that, we have a reason.” Baekhyun said.

 

“What is it, then?” You crossed your arms. “Is it because you didn’t trust me to date guys anymore after what happened to my last 2 boyfriends?”

 

Baekhyun didn’t say anything.

 

“I’m right, right?” You scoffed and was about to walk away when you saw Minyoung jogging towards the four of you.

 

“Haerinnie!” Minyoung waved excitedly. “How was your date with Luhan? You never called me last night to tell me…….all about it.” Her voice toned down when she realized the tensed atmosphere.

 

Minyoung nudged Kai, “Oppa, what’s going on?”

 

Kai just gave her a look that told her to shut up for now.

 

“Oh, I get it now.” You turned back to the boys and said. “The ‘plan’ the four of you were talking about yesterday during lunch was the whole stalking thing, wasn’t it?” You eyed the Baekhyun. “Wasn’t it?” You glared at him more, daring him to answer.

 

All he did was nod.

 

“Haerin-ah, I’m sorry. I was just trying to protect you.” Baekhyun honestly said.

 

“Protect me?! From what?!” You scoffed. “You never even knew Luhan! You never even gave him the chance and you’re already assuming that he’s bad? I can’t believe you guys!” 

 

With that, you stomped away to your first class even way before the bell had rung.

 

“How did Haerin find out that we were there?!” Kai hissed the moment he knew you were away from them.

 

“I don’t know.” Baekhyun sighed. “When she reached home, I casually asked her how the date was and then she said ‘Why don’t you tell me, Mr Stalker?’. And since then, she’s been like this.”

 

Kai leaned against the lockers and wondered what could have possibly happened that you found out.

 

Chanyeol sighed over and over again. “What are we going to do now?”

 

“We don’t do anything. We can’t.” Baekhyun said. “Maybe Haerin’s right. Luhan could’ve been a great guy after all and we never gave him a chance to get to know him better.”

 

But it still doesn’t feel right! Nothing about that Luhan feels right at all! The four of them thought.

 

When you had left your friends, you were going to go inside your classroom but you turned to go into the restroom first.

 

Angry tears filled your eyes as you looked at yourself in the mirror.

 

Baekhyun Oppa had gone too far! You thought.

 

He was just trying to protect me like the older brother he is. Especially after what you’ve been through. Your conscience answered back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At that, your conscience had nothing to reply.

 

At the sound of the bell ringing, you wiped your tears away with a paper towel and left the restroom to go to class.

 

The first class you had that day was song-writing; a class that you had with Minyoung. You felt tears forming in your eyes again at the thought of your best friends betraying you. However, you knew that you still had to attend the class so you decided to just bear with it.

 

You entered the classroom to find Minyoung already in her seat. You took your seat next to hers.

 

“Hey, Haerin. Are you feeling better now?” Minyoung asked.

 

You just shrugged in reponse, no intention of replying her. Minyoung sighed and decided that it was best that she leave you be when you were pissed at her.

 

Talking to her right now would just make her more angry,  Minyoung thought.

 

The second bell rang and soon, the teacher came in.

 

The 90 minutes lesson seemed like it lasted for 3 hours because of the tensed atmosphere between you and Minyoung.

 

It hasn’t been long, but you already missed talking to your best friend. But at the same time, you didn’t want to forgive them just yet. Whatever, if they didn’t mind betraying my trust like that, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind me not talking to them either.

 

You left the classroom to go to your next class, which was singing; the class that you have with Luhan.

 

You relaxed a bit knowing that for this class, there wasn’t a fixed seating arrangement so you could just easily ditch Minyoung and sit with Luhan.

 

Just outside the classroom, you bumped into the person that you wanted to see the most.

 

“Be careful, beautiful.” You heard Luhan’s velvet voice whispered into your ears.

 

“Luhan!” Your face immediately brightened at the sight of him, but Luhan could tell that something was off.

 

“What’s wrong, Haerin? You look upset today.” Luhan asked, even though he probably already knew the reason to your mood.

 

“Upset doesn’t even cut it.” You sighed. “I’ll tell you later during lunch. Let’s go in to class first.”

 

“Arasso.” Luhan said as he put his arm around your shoulder and walked into class with you.

 

Likewise, a second bell rang and your teacher came in not long after.

 

“Alright class, how many of you have already picked out a song and a partner if you’re singing a duet?” Mrs Lee asked.

 

A few arms were raised.

 

“Okay, since not all of you have chosen a song yet, we’ll use this class period for you to find a song.” Mrs Lee said and many of your classmates sighed in relief.

 

“Alright, you may start. If you still can’t decide on a song by the end of this class, be sure to tell me when school ends.” Mrs Lee said. “Due date is today, or you won’t be able to perform for the Midnight Jam. Which means you’ll fail this class.”

 

“Haerin-ah,” Minyoung called. You reluctantly turned your head to face her.

 

“Do you want to sing a duet together? Or are you going to sing solo?” She asked, hoping that you’d say the former.

 

“Sorry, but I’m doing a duet with Luhan.” You jabbed your thumb towards Luhan who was behind you and quickly turned away from her.

 

Luhan noticed that Minyoung was hurt and almost felt pity for her. Almost. She turned to look at Luhan who she found to be smirking at her. As if trying to say, ‘Go away, Haerin’s mine to play with now.’

 

Minyoung eyes widened and slowly backed away, making a mental note to tell the three boys about this.

 

Throughout the entire class, Mrs Lee walked around and helped those who were having trouble picking a song for themselves.

 

By the end of the lesson, you and Luhan had decided to sing EXO’s What Is Love. You went up to the teacher and told her your decision and she complimented you on it, saying that you and Luhan would be able to sing this song perfectly with just a little practice. You smiled at the teacher, thanked her and left the classroom for lunch.

 

“Are we having lunch together?” Luhan asked.

 

“Yeah, we are. I don’t want to sit with them anyways.” Your eyes narrowed at Baekhyun when you saw him walk down the hallway with Chanyeol, Kai and Minyoung.

 

“Why? Did you guys fight?” Luhan asked, feeling happier than he should be.

 

“Yeah, it was because of last night.” You said as you took your tray and joined the other students in the queue. Luhan did the same and continued to ask you about what was happening.

 

“Last night?” Luhan pretended to act blur.

 

“Baek, Yeol and Kai Oppas stalked us, remember?” You said. “I still can’t believe they did that! And even Minyoung was in on the plan.” You sighed.

 

“It’s okay, Haerin-ah. Things will get better between you and your friends and your brother.” Luhan assured.

 

“How sure are you?”

 

“I’m pretty positive.” Luhan said. “I’m sure they must have a reason for doing such a thing.”

 

“I asked what their reason was, and they said it was because they don’t trust you to be with me.” You sighed. “They haven’t even met you yet!”

 

“They don’t trust me?” Luhan questioned.

 

“Yeah, they think you’ll be like my ex-boyfriends.” You munched on your sandwich. “They think you’re with me because you’re playing with me.”

“Haerin-ah, I’ll never hurt you.” Luhan smiled. “I wouldn’t even want to.”

 

“I know that, Luhan.” You smiled back and then sighed. “But they don’t.”

 

School soon came to an end and instead of walking back home with Baekhyun and the others, you decided to stay back in school to practice the song with Luhan.

 

For two hours, the two of you practiced. Switching parts here and there to find which part sounds better when either you or Luhan sang it. By the end of the session, the parts were distributed accordingly. You mostly got the parts where the notes were high because Luhan said he wasn’t confident in singing high notes.

 

When the two of you were done, it was almost 630 in the evening. The two of you decided to go get dinner at a nearby burger place.

 

After dinner was done, Luhan walked you home once again. And just like last night, he gave you a kiss on the cheek before watching you enter the apartment building then leaving to his own house.